The French Chef 2 With
Julia Child (Cooking)
Picture: C+
Sound: C Extras: C Episodes: B+
WGBH digs again into the archives for The French Chef 2
with Julia Child, another solid 3 DVD set of shows again split along the
same exact lines of a three-course meal that previous set did. The new choices are as follows, one per
disc:
Starters & Side Dishes
1) Vegetables,
The French Way
2) Vegetable
Adventures
3) Elegance
With Eggs
4) More
About Potatoes
5) Terrines
& Pâtés
6) The
Hollandaise Family
Main Courses
7) French
Crêpes I
8) Cooking
Your Goose
9) Roast
Suckling Pig
10) Fish In Monk’s Clothing
11)
Cheese
Soufflé
12)
Sole Bonne
Femme
Baking, Desserts & Other Classics
13) French Crêpes II
14) Buche de Noël
15) Croissants
16) Gâteau In A Cage
17) French Bread
18) VIP Cake
What is entertaining also (outside of what we considered
in the first review) is that once she gets into her element, Child gets on a
role that does not stop, which is why these collections cohere so well. Even in old analog black and white
videotape, all she is cooking is interesting and looks delicious, partly
because of her enthusiasm. You know you
are missing out on something. With
diets getting worse, more junk food being available more cheaply than ever and
much of that food being boring, no wonder WGBH Boston Video is able to release
a second set. Many more should follow
and we’ll keep enjoying them. Some will
even find themselves in the kitchen.
The 1.33 X 1 image was shot on early black and white, then
full color videotape for the remaining seasons. They look good for their age and those wanting to see good
examples of this kind of analog NTSC video from the time will want to catch
these transfers in particular. WGBH has
done a good job of storing the masters and these transfers are decent. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is also good for
its age, but note that the later color shows often had a lower than usual
volume, so be careful when you adjust your volume for playback. They were recorded this way. Extras again include text on Child and a way
to print up these recipes. A few other
Child DVDs are out there and we can only hope WGBH will issue more of them,
because they are worth rediscovering.
- Nicholas Sheffo
